The Evil Consequences of Taqleed, Hizbiyyah & Partisanship – Part 3 – Fighting Between The Madhabs

Compiled, Translated and Annotated

Abu Hibbaan & Abu Khuzaimah Ansaari

1. Im interested in the statement that madhabs were enforced due to partisanship and not due to scholarly foresight or decision, can i gain further information to read up??

ANSWER

Part 3

For example the author of Khulasatul Kaidani mentions, if someone does Raf ul-Yadain, says Bismillah loudly in the prayer, says Amin loudly in the prayer and points his finger in the tashahud, then all of these affairs are from those which are haram ie unlawful (ie invalidate the prayer.). (Khulasatul Kaidani pg.15-16).

It must also be noted on the title page of Khulasatul Kaidani it says, “How do you know how to pray if you do not know Khulasatul Kaidani.”

Similarly others have said raising the hands ie Raf ul-Yadain is makruh in the prayer ie is it prohibitively disliked (refer to Radd ul-Mukhtar 1/654 and at-Tatarkhaniyyah 1/562).

Other said it is makruh tahrimi and according to the Hanafi principles this means it is haram, ie it is haram to do raise your hands in the prayer ie Raf ul-Yadain whilst going and rising from ruku. (Refer to Badai as-Sanai 1/548 and Sharh al-Muniyyah pg.347 and Faidh al-Bari 2/257

During the time of Shaikh Abu Hafs Kabeer the well known Hanafi scholar, a Hanafi man prayed behind someone and recited the Fatihah (in opposition to the hanafi madhab) behind the imam and he also raised his hands ie Raf ul-Yadain. When Shaikh Abu Hafs found out he went and complained to the ruler of the time, who in turn ruled for the Hanafi man to be publicly lashed.

Some people feeling sympathy for the Hanafi man approached Shaikh Abu Hafs and intervened and plead on his behalf. The Hanafi man eventually repented and hence was spared the publish lashing. (at-Tatarkhaniyyah 5/145)

Raising the hands was also the reason why the hanafis had animosity and hatred for Imam Bukhari. Imam Dhahabi mentions when Imam Bukhari began teaching the people, they would come to him and say the takbir for the iqamah once and also raise their hands ie Raf ul-Yadain according to the way of Ahlul Hadeeth. One of the Hanafi jurists Hareeth bin Abee al-Warqa thought this was causing discord and dissension in the community and hence began to oppose Imam Bukhari. (For more details refer to Siyar A’lam an-Nabula 12/465)

Then we have Isa bin Abu Bakr bin Ayub who died in the year 624H, he was considered to be a scholar and prolific orator, he was also the ruler of Damascus for 8 years. Shaikh Mulla Ali Qari Hanafi said about him that he was of virtuous faith and a blessing upon the deen. Isa bin Abu Bakr was also responsible for writing a refutation of Imam Khatib al-Baghdadi and he falsely attempted to prove that Imam Ibn al-Jawzi was a Hanafi.

It is said about him that he was so staunch and bigoted that his father said to him one day, “How have you adopted and accepted the madhab of Abu Haneefah when all of your family are Shafis. He replied, “Do you not wish that at least one member of your family becomes a Muslim!!!!” (al-Fawaid al-Bahiyyah pg.152) of Shaikh Abdul Hayy Lucknowi)

And how about the scholar of the sub continent, Muhiy ud deen Muhammad bin Muhammad who died in the year 789H who was a staunch and bigoted Hanafi. It has been said about him that when he went on Hajj, he would do an umrah daily and finish the recitation of the whole Quran on a daily basis. However he would shun, criticise and abuse Imam Shafi and he would consider this to be a form of worship. (Shudhrat udh-Dhahab 6/310)

All of these disgareements, quarrelling, argumentation, bigotry, staunchness, animosity and enmity all in the name of madhabs and blindly following them. It is these traits that led to the 4 separate musallahs in the first house of Allaah ie Ka’aba. Dear Muslims how is it conceivable that based on our pristine and beautiful religion about which the people of the book would envy us led to such sects and factions in the first house of Allaah whilst making the most important aspect of worship ie the prayer.

There are also other differences in which they have shown extreme bigotry and scare monging tactics and thereby strongly refuting and rebuking the opinions of the other madhabs.

For instance the one Hanafi elder and scholar, ie Shaikh Abdullah Balkhi said, “Whoever recites Fatihah behind the Imam, force soil into his mouth, and if not then break his teeth.” He also issued an edict that the one who recites fatihah behind the Imam then his is a fasiq and someone who does something haram. (Refer to Darr al-Mukhtar 1/544 and Fath ul-Qadeer 1/240)

What impression and understanding does this give to the hanafi muqallid with regards to the other madhabs and people who believe one must recite fatihah behind the Imam, how comfortable would they feel if they prayed in their masjid!!!

Also what do we do about the positions of the other Imams and madhabs like for example Imams Shafi, Ibn Mubarak, Ishaq ibn Rahawaihah, Awzai, Abu Thawr, Bukhari and many others who heled the opinion that Fatihah should be recited behind the Imam. Are they worthy of soil being put in their mouths, their teeth being broken and fire put into their mouths??? Subhanallah, The Imams Bukhari and Baihaqi even wrote books on this topic obligating the reciting Fatihah behind the Imam.

Unfortunately this is the result of blind bigoted partisanship and such opinions lead to this level of sectarianism which ultimately lead to discord, chaos and dissention in the Ummah and the end goal of all of this is that a Muslim is prohibited and restricted from following and obeying the Book and the Sunnah. May Allaah keep us upon the Quran and Hadeeth. Ameen.

The well known historian and traveller of Spain ie Andalus Ibn Jubair who died in the year 614H. In the year 579H he travelled to Makkah and said, “From the Imams of Ahlus Sunnah (meaning some people were not from Ahlus Sunnah) the Shafis would pray first and they were the followers of the Abasid Imams and their place was at Muqam Karim, thereafter the Malikis would pray. However at the time of Maghrib due to the constraints of time all of them would pray with their own perspective Imams all at the same time (ie 4 imams all leading the Maghrib prayer.)

This was very difficult as each individual would be very attentive to the sound and voice of their own mu’adhain and Imam. This is because they would hear 4 takbirs from the 4 Imams and the worshippers would get very confused and lost. Sometimes they would do ruku and sujud according to the takbirs of the hanafis, malikis, shafis and hanbalis and sometimes their own imam and sometimes they would say the Salam at the end according to another imams salutation etc.” (End of Ibn Jubairs words) (Rihlah Ibn Jubair 78)

Dear readers can you imagine what confusion and disorientation there would have been whilst trying to pray in such an atmosphere. In our daily lives it becomes difficult enough based on the background noise can you imagine what the atmosphere would have been like. What can be more of an example of partisanship and bigotry than this in the house of Allaah, this is what sectarianism and madhabism always eventually leads to and this is also the situation in our times.

What is even more disturbing and worrying can you imagine what level of Khushu, Khudhu and concentration some of these worshippers must have had when they were praying in such an atmosphere, knowing very well the prayer would be the first thing to be judged on the day of judgement.

In part of this series in relation to question no.4 where the questioner asks about hundreds and thousands of scholars refining and correcting a madhab from within. Indeed then this is nothing but a fallacy as most often the scholars continued to defend their madhab irrespective of the positions.

For example the issue of 4 imams leading prayers in a single masjid, an emiment Hanafi scholar Shaikh Mulla Ali Qari said in defence of this, “If there is an Imam for every madhab like there is in our time, then it is better to pray behind the Imam of your Madhab (only) whther he prays earlier or later. This is because the general Muslims and the majority of the believers from the Harmain, Quds, Misr and Sham have adopted and preferred this way and no attention is paid to those who oppose this.” (Radd al-Mukhtar 1/564) and Allamah Shami even goes onto give evidence for the permissibility of numerous jamahs in the Haram. (Radd al-Mukhtar 1/553)

And we have not even began to talk about the current day issues of bigotry and staunchness and if this was the case we would run into volumes. There have been cases of severe physical abuse upon people who changed from hanafis to Ahlul Hadeeth, masjids being destroyed and burnt, scholars being shot and injured, houses being burnt and destroyed.

Masjids banning the Ahlul Hadeeth, washing the places where an Ahlul Hadeeth prayed Salah, breaking the Ahlul Hadeeths fingers whilst they supplicated with them in the tashahud etc.

In Egypt an Imam did not recite the Bismillah loudly so someone during the prayer said your prayer is Baatil, so repeat your prayer. So the prayer was started again. Similarly the Shafis once prayed the fajr prayer behind the Hanafis and Malikis on jumuah and then they repeated the prayer only because the Hanafi imam did not recite Soorah Sajdah in the prayer. (Refer to the monthly journal al-Furqan April issue no.44 pg.55, 1994)

Likewise Allamah Rashid Ridha mentions that, “A Hanafi from Afghanistan heard that a man whilst praying recited the Fatihah behind the Imam, so a person punched him so hard in this chest or stomach that he fell down in sheer agony, pain and nearly died from it. I have also been informed that someone broke a persons finger just because he was moving it during tashahud.

In the last century the people of Tarbulus were engrossed in so much partisanship and sectarianism to such an extreme level that some of the Shafis went to the main mufti and asked him to divide the masjid into 2 halves one for us and one for the Hanafis because their jurists (ie the Hanafi faqihs) consider us to be Ahludh-Dhimmah.

The issue of a Hanafi man marrying a Shafi woman also arose. Some argued that he cannot marry her because the Shafi woman says I am believer inshallah therefore she doubts her imam and others said he can marry her by reasoning and say she can be understood to be from the people of Dhimmah.” (End of his words) (Refer to Muqaddimah al-Mughni 1/18)

The late indian Hanafi scholar, Sayyid Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi has also cited the breaking of the finger whilst moving it during Tashahud by some the afghani tribes and he concludes the people only did this because this what they were taught ie that Khulasatul Kaidani teaches that is haram to move the finger in tashahud. (When The Waves of Iman Came pg.213-214 in the footnotes.)

Shaikh Sha’arani said, “Most of the Muqallideen have very evil thoughts about the other Imams. It has been relayed to us that the Hanafis and Shafis of Wara Nahr abandon fasting in the month of Ramadhan so that they maintain their energy whilst refuting each others evidences and proofs.” (Meezan al-Kubra 1/43)

Shaikh Taj ud din Subki (771H) said, “It is unacceptable to Allaah, the forcing of people to accept one madhab and the associated partisanship (tahazzub) in the subsidiary issues of the deen and nothing pushes this fervour and zealously except partisanship and jealousy. If Abu Haneefah, Shafi, Malik and Ahmad were alive they would severely censure these people and they would dissassociate themselves from them.” (Mu’eed an-Na’am Wa Mubeed an-Naqam pg.76)

This way of bigoted staunchness was not the way of the salaf, they still had mutual respect for each other and differing opinions. There are numerous examples from during the times of the companions who despite differences would still respect, listen and pray behind each other. Likewise and similarly if they saw or found someone from amongst their companions they would advise them by giving them evidences from the Quran and Sunnah.

To mention a few examples are for example Abu Talha (RadhiAllaahu Anhu) did not believe that eating ice broke the fast(refer to Musnad Ahmad 3/279 and al-Ahkam 6/83 of Imam Ibn Hazm)

and Abdullah Ibn Masood (RadhiAllahu Anhu) would place his hands between his knees during the ruku (Sahih Muslim 1/202).

Ibn Umar (RadhiAllahu Anhuma) believed that the eyes should be open during the Ghusl of Janabah (refer to Zarkanis explanation of the Muwatta 1/92) and many many more.

However they still had that respect and prayed behind each other. Shaikh ul-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah mentions despite the differences between the companions and the successors they would still pray behind each other. (Refer to al-Fatawa al-Kubra 2/380).

The same applied to the scholars and Imams of this Ummah. For example Imam Ahmad’s opinion regarding normal bleeding was that it invalidate a persons wudhu and so he was asked if an Imam, the one leading the prayer started to bleed and he did not repeat his wudhu, would you pray behind him? Imam Ahmad replied, “How can I not pray behind Imam Malik and Sa’eed ibn al-Musayyab (who believed normal bleeding did not invalidate the wudhu.” (al-Fatawa al-Kubra 2/381 of Ibn Taymiyyah and Hujjatullah al-Balighah 1/159 of Shah Waliullah Dehlawi).

And also For example Qadhi Abu Yusuf once bathed in such a bath area and led the prayer in the Friday prayer, later he found out the the well the water was supplied from a well that had a dead mouse in it, upon this he said, “So we take the statement of our brothers from the people of Madinah that when the water is equal to 2 qullas it is not impure.” (Fatawa al-Bazaziyyah cited from Hujjatullah al-Balighah 1/159)

Liewise Qadhi Abu Yusuf once prayed behind the Khaliph Harun Rashid who had hijama cups attached to him and he lead the prayer and he did not repeat his wudhu according to the opinion of Imam Malik. Qadhi Abu Yusuf did not repeat the prayer. (al-Fatawa al-Kubra 2/380)

This has also led to various scholars of the differend madhabs belittling and hurling abuse to the Scholars who they thought belonged to other madhabs. Citing examples would lengthen this discourse which beyong the scope of it, One such example is when Shaikh Anwar Shah Kashmiri Hanafi Deobandi refers to Imam Baihaqi as a mutassub ie abigoted individual. (Refer to his Faidh al-Bari 1/58, 301)

These are some of the consequences and means by which certain madhabs were forced amongst the communites. We pray that Allaah saves us from such staunch blind bigotedness. Ameen

By the two who are in need of the Mercy of his Lord, may Allah forgive us